When Heidi Barker, a field specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension in Nutrition and Healthy Living, was looking for “teacher champions” to start a farm to school program, Carlene Taylor, a third-grade teacher in Berlin, got involved right away. Teachers were taught gardening skills, taste testing, composting, and other skills. “There were a potpourri of lessons in the curriculum and UNH was able to fund a portable kitchen,” Taylor says.
Taylor and her students have grown herbs, cabbage and other vegetables, and she has turned to donors to continue providing farm-to-school projects for students. “We wanted a big blender that was pricey so we put out an ad and received funding,” she says. “The Rotary and Kiwanis clubs have been really kind helping us finance our gardening projects.”
Kids in Taylor’s classroom are learning life skills and trying new foods, she says. February’s vegetable was cabbage. “We made sauerkraut that fermented on our table for over a week and I was surprised. They really enjoyed it,” Taylor says. “A lot of kids hadn’t tried kale before. That was our first harvest of the month and it wasn’t such a big hit but they got to try it.”
Taylor’s classroom includes a gardening windowsill full of herbs. And an ongoing project involves learning about composting and reseeding with a pumpkin named Jack. “Right now our unit is the plant’s life cycle so there’s a lot of discussion about germination,” she says. “Mondays they lay on their stomachs to check seedlings in a light box on the floor.”
Soon Taylor’s class will learn how to transplant tomato and lettuce seedlings. “We’ll have a nice big classmate salad soon.”
Taylor is working on a grant with Barker to buy a large hydroponic unit for growing. “Knowing this equipment will be used into the future is pretty cool,” she says. “I hope the rest of the third-grade team will hop on board. We’re hoping to get some funding and we’re leaning on parents and clubs and working on getting grants for the next three years.”